This invention relates to removing heat from integrated circuit (IC) array packages.
As the densities of integrated circuits (e.g., microprocessors, gate arrays, ASICs) continue to increase, the size of the packages used to house the circuits continue to shrink. These smaller, higher performing integrated circuits generate tremendous amounts of heat which is required to be dissipated. Thus, externally mounted heat sinks with profiles having large surface areas are typically mounted on the IC packages. In some cases, the size of the heat sink mounted to the IC package can dwarf the size of the package itself.
IC packages are either connected directly to circuit boards, or through adapters or sockets. Adapters and sockets are described in Advanced Interconnections Catalog No. 14-A (available from 5 Energy Way, West Warwick, R.I. 02893). In general, they consist of a glass epoxy frame having pins which are used to electrically connect a PC board with an IC or other electrical component.
Adapters are used to permanently convert one type of package to another. For example, a ball grid array (BGA) package having rounded solder ball contacts may be soldered to an adapter array having terminals pins, thereby converting the BGA package to a pin grid array (PGA) package.
Sockets, on the other hand, are used to allow particular IC packages to be interchanged without permanent connection to a circuit board. More recently, sockets for use with PGA, BGA and LGA packages have been developed to allow these packages to be non-permanently connected (e.g., for testing) to a circuit board.